Update summer 25’
Our long awaited spring/summer is finally here. We at Tinman are slowly recovering from an exceptionally busy train season. Plan on taking as much R&R over the next couple of months. As such you may find many items may show out of stock. We are working and are still trying hard to replenish our inventory before the fall season starts.
WE have done a lot of purchasing which is badly needed. We are very fortunate that most of the items we sell are 100% all American made. Virtually all of the tracks, and transformers we refurbish are in that list. It is amazing, and with a lot of pride working on Lionel, K line, Ives, and other made American Made products, are in many cases getting close to 100 years old, and after our working with them are every bit as good (and in many cases better) than when they were originally made way back when.
And the interesting thing is the quality of those items is way better than what you can buy today! But, being fair the adjusted selling price today for a zw transformer would be $621.00 allowing to inflation which would still be a bargain!
Every so often a customer will call somewhat upset that some things we produce like controllers, electronic parts, cables, led’s etc, that the parts are not American made. Well like it or not most of those items are no longer made in America. Last year I spent months trying to buy just American made cables for the products we use, which are available American made. The cost for Beldon (a high quality American company) cables was 25 times more than a higher quality Chinese equivalent. Fortunately we purchased pre tariffs, but even with tariffs the cost would be 10 times more for Beldon’s.
Recently we had to reorder some electrical switches that are only available from China. The cost of the switches was no more than they were a year ago, but the costs of shipping and fees (tariffs) raised the delivered cost over double what they were last year. Why the discussion? Because yes we are going to have to raise some of our prices. It’s either that or stop producing the items. Does not make us happy campers. That plus huge price increases in shipping local US shipping costs, is driving us crazy!
Another new item available this fall.
As many of you know for years we have replaced the whistle circuits in the ZW and KW transformers, that work way better than the original ones. What we have done, is copy these circuits exactly and mounted them in a separate box, that goes between the transformer and them center rail to operate both whistles, horns and bells that require a negative dc pulse. Each box will handle 2 loops. Unlike the original whistle controls, ours does not draw any current until it is activated. Cost looks like I will be in the $30 range. You will now have a true 4 train operation from both the zw’s and the original z and v models.
Believe it or not we are working on a brandy new O27 remote control switch! This switch will have a huge LED indicator to indicate switch direction as well as of course a no de-rail feature. In the process now of perfecting production techniques. You won’t believe it’s origin when it is finally available!
Enjoy the summer my friends! And remember!
YOU DON’T GROW OLD FROM PLAYING WITH TRAINS, YOU GROW Old WHEN YOU STOP PLAYING WITH TRAINS!
tinman@tinman3rail.com 262-914-0057 or Christine 262-417-4237